Y Ancient Chinese philosophy has a very important influence in Chinese foodculture. Let’s first look at a very interesting picture:

Yin and Yang

This is the traditional symbol for the forces of yin and yang, sometimesdescribed as two fish swimming head to tail. The left half is yin and the righthalf is yang. Taken literally, yin and yang mean the dark side and sunny sideof a hill.

People commonly think of yin and yang as opposing forces. However, it isreally more appropriate to view them as complementary pairs. The Chinesebelieve problems arise not when the two forces are battling, but when there isan imbalance between them. Floods, divorce, or even a fire in the kitchen – allcan be attributed to disharmony in the forces of yin and yang.

How does the concept of yin and yang relate to food?

A basic adherence to this philosophy can be found in ANY Chinese dish, fromstir-fried beef with broccoli to sweet and sour pork. There is always a balancein color, flavors, and textures.

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However, belief in the importance of following the principles of yin andyang in the diet extends further.

Certain foods have yin properties, while others have yang properties –Cooling or warm, fat or non-fat, high-calorie or low- calorie, and etc.

Almost no foodstuff is purely yin or yang – it’s more that onecharacteristic tends to dominate. It also reinforces that it is not so much theindividual ingredients, as the the balance and contrast between ingredients ineach dish, that is important. Interestingly, cooking methods also have more ofa yin or yang property, as the list below demonstrates.

500+ HealthyChinese Recipes Cookbook. Learn How To Cook Low Fat & Low Carb ChineseFood From Master Chef W/ 40 Years Of Cooking Experience!

Dear Nicholas Zhou,

I am enjoying your recipes and I thank you for such a great cook book.

I would love to have you talk about Healthy Chinese Recipes on WSBS radio. Iproduce Ms Ruby’s Food Talk on Thursday mornings at 9:30am eastern time withRuth Adams Bronz who is a cookbook author and restaurant owner. What would yousay to a 30 minute interview some Thursday morning.

Please let me know and keep the recipes coming. The ginger beef recipe wasdelicious.

Nick Diller – Morning host and Producer of Ms Ruby’s Food Talk on 860AMWSBS

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